I’ve bike around a bit around Seattle occasionally. It felt like Portland but steeper; which did make side street cars seem more dangerous (or at least more annoying). Tacoma was worse, though I should probably blame that on google.
See…I never do that. IMO weaving back and forth like that is a recipe for disaster. Every time you get out of the main riding line, you have to merge back in, and hope people make room for you. You’ve ceded space, and then need to rely on motorists to give it back to you to continue riding.
Now…I’m talking generally here, not really in regards to the OPs picture.
Well actually…I’m taking more specifically in an urban setting, with parked cars directly to the right, passing cars directly to the left. I pick a line just outside the door zone of the parked car, and stay in that area regardless of gaps in the parked cars or intersections. I see people swerve way over into the parked car space, or swing right in intersections, and then swing back into traffic. Horrible idea IMO.
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I try and move out of the way when I feel it is safe for me to do that. I wave cars around me when that is safe. I wave at cars when they pass when they’ve been patiently waiting to pass (lots of experience riding twisty canyon roads in both Bay Area and Greater LA).
But I take offense to the OP’s basic supposition (or at least how it came across to me): that on that specific stretch of road he knows where that specific cyclist should ride so that he as a privileged driver he isn’t inconvenienced. From the limited I can see in that picture, the road looks very chewed up (probably in the process of getting repaved). And probably has parts with piles of ground up asphalt. I don’t know where the safest spot to ride is, and I don’t know the skill level / comfort of that specific cyclist and neither does the OP. So as the cyclist is riding legally, I don’t fault him.
My experience with drivers in the Bay Area is that a waaaay to high level are privileged A-holes who break the law (speed, blow through stop signs, blow through red lights, don’t stop for pedestrians, etc.). I walk my dogs at a stupidly early hour (~5:15am) and I see cars blow through red lights on Great Highway / blow through stop signs without slowing almost every day. So a privileged driver complaining about how cyclist bring on driver anger is laughable for how I see drivers act daily.
Edited to correct my lousy typing
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Exactly my experience as well.
Long time motorcyclist and bike rider. 25 years (ouch) ago I used to commute from SF near Daly City to Redwood City. I stayed off the roads as much as I could. You had to be defensive to stay alive back then, now it’s prob worse. My closest encounter with death was when a driver turned right, with me on his right side. Looking into the car as he passed me before turning I saw a 40oz bottle of beer. I shouted at him he should not drink and drive he might spill his beer.
I now live in the Texas countryside. I find that keeping 1/3 of the lane makes them have to go into the opposite traffic lane, keeps me a bit safer. As long as that big black diesel pick up doesn’t mow me down I feel safe. That along with a very bright tail light.
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I think that is an unfair characterization of the OP’s post. It wasn’t about him being inconvenienced, he was using it as an example of how cyclists’ behavior can aggravate drivers.
Maybe. But the tone of the OP came off as blaming the cyclist for riding legally because he was inconvenienced. If he didn’t feel inconvenienced why would he think other drivers would feel angry at the cyclist. And he felt so aggrieved that he illegally used his phone while driving to take a picture, and then write a post expressing his aggravation.
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Like a lot of silly arguments in life…arguments against cyclists are usually a mess of disjointed, disingenuous arguments designed to hide the overriding sentiments of anger and entitlement, which is really what the argument stems from.
Drivers feel the road is for them, they’re annoyed/angry any time someone takes a piece of it from them. That’s literally all there is to it.
Drivers talking about the safety of cyclists is generally speaking, laughable. They’re just grasping at straws to come up with a way to make their whining sound a bit less self serving.
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On top of car drivers angry feelings at cyclists
And the age of having every distraction in car
We had to deal with the human factor… Believe me the video below also applies to bicycles
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I think that is how you read it, but not how it was intentioned. I certainly didn’t interpret it that way and he further explained his intent later in the thread.
All this “tsk tsking” over him snapping a pic is kinda silly, IMO….we have all done something with our phones at some point while driving.
And we all rightly should be shamed severely for it, every single time.
Phones are the new drunk driving. How many decades and deaths did it take for society to come around to viewing people having 6 drinks and then driving around as unacceptable?
Just because it is commonplace does not mean it is ethical.
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You’re kinda making the point here - cycling in the road is not illegal nor should it be dangerous. Drivers break the law regularly and are in control of a lethal weapon - no matter what you think you might do to “be safer” on the roads as a cyclist, the problem lies with those in control of the lethal weapons. It’s a societal issue in how we view driving offences as different to other law breaking.
Let me know where I said it was.
Pointing out the hypocrisy doesn’t mean I endorse the behavior.
I don’t think you have understood my posts.
That comes from the car-centric culture we have. Driving is paramount.
It isn’t deemed essential to teach new drivers about safety in situations where they are putting people in significant danger by operating a large vehicle capable of high speeds. Most planning of public space is designed around getting a car quickly from point A-B. Driving is something people have to do so much of, and becomes mundane. So then the average driver is ignorant and doesn’t consider the person on the bike or crossing the street as more important than a potential 20-second delay on their drive.
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I’d say education is not the problem though. If a person is truly too stupid to understand that a cyclist or pedestrian is endangered because of 2 tons of steel speeding towards them, they should not be allowed to have a license.
The issue is expectations of behavior, reinforced by strict enforcement of laws promoting the expected behavior.
Tickets for 1mph over the speed limit. Impoundment of vehicle for 10mph over. Clearly running a red light is a suspended license. Treat phone use the same as a DUI, with night in jail. Speed/red light Cameras on every corner of urban areas as standard. Software to disable phone access while in vehicles.
That’s not to say that’s the only needed change…clearly infrastructure and culture needs to change as well, moving away from as you put it, the car centric view.
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Can you see where dutch cyclists ride, though? (that’s a 60km/h outside city limits road, the highest speed road with mixed traffic in the Netherlands)
and another example within the city limits
Dear Cyclist, this is why drivers don’t see you.
Add the proliferation of tall pickup trucks and SUVs with numerous blind spots and you have a no-win situation for cyclists. Even riding in bike lanes has become sketchy,
Every day on every ride you must assume you are invisible at all times.
Doesn’t matter whether they like you or not when the excuse will be “Sorry, Officer. I never saw them.”
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/thread:
This is why gravel cycling exists.